Beyond the Digital Divide

Contextualizing the Information Society

By: Petr Lupac

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Paperback | 15 May 2020

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248 Pages

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15.2 x 22.8 x 2.1

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This book critically reviews existing digital divide research and challenges its core thesis, which posits unequal Internet access as a newly formed source of social disadvantage. The author begins by introducing the building blocks of the information society theory. The book goes on to present a systematic overview of digital divide research - its development, arguments attesting to the social gravity of the digital divide, and current findings on the uneven diffusion and use of the Internet. It evaluates the validity of the theories and concepts associated with digital divide research. The author offers an overview and re-examination of six presumptions and biases found in the prevailing approach to the digital divide. Given that Internet use has, in certain contexts, become an absolute necessity, an alternative approach is proposed, recognizing the indispensability of Internet use as context dependent. The book concludes with a consideration of the implications that this new perspective has for the information society theory and policies as well as for the role of social science in the informatization process.

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The author offers a new approach that views the internet as one of many possible information and communication channels and assesses the digital divide as defined by a contextually determined necessity to use the internet as the only possible tool, showing that the digital divide is not a permanent or pervasive condition of every aspect of life or society, but that internet use depends on context, and that the idea that inadequate internet access always leads to social disadvantage is misleading. He addresses the key arguments of the information society theory, to illustrate technology's key role; the origins and construction of a Manuel Castells' social theory and its relationship to the information society and the digital divide thesis, showing how the dominant approach in digital divide research is connected to the information society theory; digital divide research, its core argument, and its thesis and its validity; the inadequacies of the digital divide thesis and assumptions in digital divide research, including universal impact, universal necessity of internet use, isolated users, and the belief that innovation should be adopted by everyone; a contextual approach to the digital divide that explains how context determines the social impact of the digital divide; and the role of the information society theory in the process of informatization. -- Annotation (c)2018 * (protoview.com) *

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